On March 12, ZHU pressed “send” on an update that his devotees had been awaiting for months: his album was finished. Approximately two weeks later, the visionary’s next opus is taking shape with “Sky Is Crying,” the very first slice of DREAMLAND 2021 sound.
The outing, made in tandem with co-writer Yuna, finds ZHU’s suave sonic tendencies at play and his brooding, moodier techniques shelved—for now, at least. Though ZHU, who’s cultivated a reputation for his darker overtures, applies a lighter touch on “Sky Is Crying,” DREAMLAND 2021‘s debut single nevertheless contains his cinematic kiss. Trading toplines atop polished production, ZHU and Yuna enter into a synergistic vocal exchange. Altogether, “Sky Is Crying” leaves no room for perceptive error; listeners will immediately recognize this to be a ZHU original well before the 10-second mark.
From this initial DREAMLAND 2021 alone, it’s evident that the successor to 2018’s Ringo’s Desert holds promise—it wasn’t included among Dancing Astronaut‘s roundup of 17 of the most-anticipated albums of 2021 without reason, after all. DREAMLAND 2021 is due April 30 via Astralwerks.
